nhomas

Ah, just what I need right now: some retro chiptune-type stuff. I don't really know anything about this genre, though, so bear that in mind as you read my comments. Dungeon -------- Very low energy level here. Very little change, and very little rhythmic activity. None of that is a problem in itself. However, for such a lethargic piece, I think that the amount of repetition you employ is questionable; it would be fine if it were a more energetic piece, but as it is, it feels like not enough is happening. I'd also try to get away from the "loopy" feel in the composition; give it a feeling of moving forward, not of moving in circles. Arena ------ Same comments apply, mostly. Pretty slow, pretty loopy. If this is supposed to be for a battle scene, I'm not really getting the right vibe; I think that for a battle scene, I'd want something more energetic and exciting; pump the tempo, give it a bassline, have some counterpoint going on. Make it busier. Thieves' Den ------------ A common pattern I'm seeing in your compositions is that you'll create variation by changing up a couple notes, without changing the rhythm. That can work if done carefully, but a lot of the time, the changes are too subtle to be noticed as variations. I think I noticed that in Dungeon, but it's not as bad in this one. Another note on the variations. After listening to it for a while, I can parse the variations you're using as a logical progression, which is what they are. However, for someone listening less attentively, or listening to it for the first few times, the progression isn't noticeable. That's the sort of thing that it's hard to catch in a composition, when you're the composer, and know the piece inside and out. Jail --- Pleasingly, this one employs more rhythmic activity and richer texture than the other pieces, and overall more development. Also perhaps the first one with a bassline? I think, however, that this one suffers from too much repetition of the tonic, since all of the melodies are strongly centered on it. Try wandering away from the tonic for longer periods. Horace ------- This one has a pretty catchy melody. I assume that these pieces were written sequentially? I can see a definite improvement as I progress through this soundtrack. Shapeshifter's Maze ------------------- I assume this is the one where you used the five-note chord? Nice bassline. Has a nice winding-up feel to it, like many rising chromatic melodies. However, this one feels pretty choppy; like a sequence of unrelated things, rather than a cohesive whole. This is a difficult problem to crack, so do keep at it. Dragon's Den ------------- Here's one with a higher level of rhythmic activity, so bully to you on that. That said, I think it's much too repetitious. End Credits ----------- The opening bit sounds very familiar. This piece is pretty outstanding relative to all the others in terms of melodic development. Overall ------- I think that all of your pieces need to be much shorter; you repeat too much, and you don't have enough musical material to justify the length. You also need to work on your transitions, and explore richer, more active textures. This music creates a mood reasonably well, and in that sense it serves its purpose, but it's not fulfilling its full potential.

Regarding the mix: Kick and clap should be much louder. Hats need more treble and less mid. Really good from a composition perspective. Listened three times now, very much diggin' it. The only thing that felt unconvincing to me was the fade-out at the end. I feel like that's more of a pop thing to do: a way to quickly bring the track down in the constraints of a tight three-minute format. For the longer, more relaxed format of a dance tune, you want the energy level to gradually taper off at the end of the tune, slowly stripping away elements to bring the track to a stop. Glad to see you're still making tunes.

Since you asked, a tip regarding lyrics: try to listen for the natural points of emphasis in your words, and write your melodies so that the points of melodic emphasis match the lyrical points of emphasis. That avoids that awkward feel that the lyrics have in some places. That said, I really did enjoy this piece; nice harmonies, nice groove, nice melodies. My main issue is with the verse. I think that the repeat is pretty jarring. If I were writing this piece, I might change up the harmony on the repeat; that would give it more of a sense of movement.

I just thought I'd follow up on my comments on the mix. While they still stand as what I personally feel, the mix choices you've made are actually consistent with the (admittedly few) other Reggaeton songs I've heard since. I guess that, from my perspective, the whole genre is mixed wrong!

Wow, you're going to play this for children? That's vaguely evil. Love the rumbling bass and the bizarre wooshy background noises. I guess that this one has the same "static" quality as the piano piece. Since you don't seem to consider that a bad thing, though, I guess it's not a problem.

Yes, you're right. I could certainly have made this piece more concise. I think about this a lot, actually: how much repetition is the right amount? It just depends on how closely you want to listen. If you were just playing this in the background, I could probably get away with more repetition, and some people I've talked to say that they would actually like that. On the other hand, if you want to listen closely, giving the music your full attention, you probably want less repetition. I read somewhere where Stockhausen went so far as to suggest that composers should use no repetition. So repetition is, I think, like spices: some people like more, some like less. But in any case, I think that my subsequent pieces are going to use less. As for the FX'd percussion parts, I think I know what you're talking about, and I think that I agree, actually. Actually, I feel like that whole middle section (the part with the rhythmic, babbling synth) isn't as strong as the rest of the piece. Also, an interesting aside: the synth in the middle section (starting around 2:30) is actually two synths being fed into a vocoder: one is a pad, and one is generating rhythmic bursts of white noise with a bandpass filter with an automated cutoff frequency. The thing you thought was FX'd percussion was not actually percussion, or in fact any new part at all, but just me modifying the wet/dry control on the vocoder so that you could hear the unmodified noise generator synth.

This is awesome! Love the super-clean drums juxtaposed with the filthy synth line at the opening. Develops quite nicely from there, too. Great open sound, very funky, very fresh, lots of catchy little bits and pieces. Some of the higher-pitched synths are a little too loud, though. I could point out where if the Box.net player had a time indicator. Bass drum is on the quiet side. Great closing, too, but it sounds like it cuts out a little too early. Maybe it was intentional, but I would have let the echo decay into nothing before ending the piece. Once again, love this piece. A little rough around the edges; some mix issues, sequencing could be tighter, etc. You should really consider cleaning this piece up, because it deserves it.

Thanks for commenting! This bit made me laugh out loud. :D Not what I was expecting anyone to say. Sorry you didn't like it, though. Personally, I think that there's a place for music with a level of energy in between ambient and dance music; for when you're in a moderate mood, maybe. Of course, I won't criticize your opinion, either.

Here's a piece of electronic music, sequenced in Reason. Stylistically, I was thinking a little of groups like Plaid and Boards of Canada while I worked on this. It follows a loose arch form, structured around a repeating 16-bar chord progression and a melody following the same chords. It's a little under 80bpm, with a double-time feel in the drum groove. Besides comments on the music itself, I would appreciate comments on the quality of the mix. Thanks! http://li8-214.members.linode.com/uploads/vectograph.mp3

I wish to expand on SSC's comment about the different feels of keys. As he said, the different feelings conveyed by different keys are created purely in the minds of composers and listeners. The explanation is simple: those of us without perfect pitch can't tell what key a piece is in just by listening to it. If you played Bach's C major prelude in F# major, 99% of us would never know. Furthermore, historically, the standard tunings have been different: for instance, the tunings in Germany in Beethoven's time were much lower than our current standard tuning. Thus, their C major was not our C major; it wasn't even close. Now, the conclusion to draw is not that all keys sound the same: it is simply that the different sounds that keys possess are a psychological phenomenon, not one with any acoustic basis. Also, I would suggest that using different keys is helpful partially because it makes things more interesting for performers. Gives them some variety. I know that when I play piano, Eb major feels very different under the fingers than does C major or F major. It's nice to mix things up.

* You need to not put reverb on the kick drum. It will make it sound tighter and punchier, and make it cut through the mix better. This applies to all of the other drums as well, but the kick drum most of all. * I feel that the stereo image is a bit unbalanced; try panning things more subtly. Perhaps this is only an issue listening through headphones, though. * The bassline should be louder. No reverb on this one, either. I can't tell whether you used any, so I apologize if you didn't, but I thought it seemed worth mentioning. These mix issues aside, this is a really nice-sounding piece of music. Just make these minor corrections, and it will sound wonderful; real heavy and danceable.

My wild guess is that, in order to get your method to work, you'd need to disable human playback, so that the tempos match. However, assuming you're using Finale or Sibelius, I have to say that you're using a program that really wasn't designed for this sort of thing. Depending on what you're trying to do, perhaps you'd have better luck exporting a MIDI and importing it into a sequencer of some sort (assuming that you have access to such).

First: Read this Wikipedia article: Salsa music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Second: Listen to lots of salsa, to get a handle on the various idioms used. This is the most important part, as it's how you go about learning to write in any genre.

Pretty nice piece, creates a nice mood and atmosphere. However, I don't know how "oriental" it really sounds. I'm actually hearing a lot of India, a lot of Egypt, and a bit of Africa, and not much orient at all. There's also a fair bit that I don't think could be identified with any particular ethnic music tradition. None of this is necessarily a problem; however, if your goal is to create authentic ethnic music, I would recommend listening more and doing some more research.

To answer the OP's question: I'm not really one for stories. I don't spend a lot of time reading fiction, or watching movies, or watching TV, mainly because I feel like I don't get as much out of any of these things as do other people. So naturally, I don't really view music in terms of stories. At least, not in the sense that I think you mean. I don't look for meaning in the music I listen to; I never relate it to extra-musical things. That said, while I don't think of music in terms of stories, a piece of music is a lot like a story in that it's a series of events organized in time. However, I would prefer to think of it as a journey. When I listen to a piece of music, I get sucked into this imaginary world created by the music, and then the progression of the piece takes me on a trip through it. I find that closing my eyes is essential for this to happen; when I do this, I see abstract patterns of light and color dancing around in my mind's eye, representing the different sounds in the music. So there's definitely a drama going on in my head, but it's purely abstract and not tied to anything non-musical.